Living On
by Jay-Birdy
Summary: Astoria is set on pulling her sister Daphne out of the depression she has fallen into after watching her lover die. Astoria/Draco, Daphne/Tracey.
1. Chapter 1

_The Great Hall was filled with shouts, spells and the smell of death. Tracey Davis didn't have enough time to change her fierce smile to one of surprise or pain or anything. She just crumpled, and was dead. _

_Daphne felt herself slowly moving to Tracey's side. It was as if she and Tracey's body were all that were left in the world. Time itself seemed to have slowed as adrenaline pumped through her body. _

_But she was still too slow to catch Tracey's body before it hit the ground. Tracey's lifeless body hit the floor. Thump. Daphne could still see her fierce smile. _

_When Daphne did reach Tracey's body, there was blood mattered in her brown hair. Sound came rushing back in, and she was aware that Tracey's killer would try to hurt her too. But she was paralyzed. The blood from Tracey's hair was now on her hands. Someone was shouting at her to get up-_

"Merlin's oath, get up Daphne, you can't sleep all day!" Astoria nagged, and yanked the blanket covers off Daphne – the cold air caused her curl up.

"Brat," Daphne spat half-heartedly at her sister, and buried her head in her pillow. She heard Astoria click her fingers.

"Mimsy, get me a bucket of ice cold water."

Daphne groaned. "Fine, I'm up, I'm up. What time is it?"

Astoria yanked the curtains open. The light near blinded her.

"Snot-face!"

"It's nearly 2 in the afternoon. You can't sleep your life away." Astoria said, not unkindly.

"Fine. I'll be down in a moment." Daphne said, and Astoria looked at her skeptically but left. Daphne rolled her neck, and stood. She hobbled to her dresser. Elves popped in and offered to help dress her, but she waved them away.

Inside her dresser were many fine dresses that were gathering dust. She picked out a comfortable grey robe. Hanging hidden in between her formal black robes was a bloodstained Slytherin tie. She let her fingers briefly brush it and closed her eye and took in a deep breath.

Okay.

Breath out. Daphne dressed without ceremony and closed her dresser. She put on simple makeup and jewelry, and also put on the best smile she could manage.

Downstairs Astoria was waiting impatiently. She had already instructed the elves to make coffee. Lemon tarts also sat in the middle of the dining room table. Daphne pulled up a chair and poured coffee for herself.

"Be honest, did you even try to brush your hair?" Astoria said, and began tugging at Daphnes hair, trying to comb it with her fingers. "It used to be such a pretty blonde when you looked after it…"

"Coffee first, then nag me."

Astoria hurrumphed, and Daphne shot her a tired grin. Astoria continued tugging at her hair, and Daphne did her best to ignore it as she down her coffee and two of the lemon tarts.

"Alright, what was I supposed to do today that I have apparently forgotten? You're being all passive aggressive." Daphne said, as she poured a second cup of coffee.

"I'm just brushing your hair," Astoria said.

"Passive agressivly."

There was a moment of silence

"You promised you would come to Diagon Alley with me. You were going to have lunch with us so you could meet Draco."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "I'm already met _Dray-co_," she said, imitating the sissy way her sister said her suitors name, "I was in his year at Hogwarts."

"You know what I mean."

Daphne sighed. And tugged her head away from Astoria's fingers. "Sorry."

"Whatever. I know you don't particularly like him." Astoria said, as she moved and sat in the chair next to Daphne, giving her a rather pointed stare.

"I don't particularly like anyone who acts like that around my sister." Daphne replied and finished her second cup of coffee. Astoria rolled her eyes. There was awkward silence.

"Daphne-" Astoria said softly, as if talking to a frightened animal. Daphne was almost certain of where this conversation was going.

"Please don't."

"It's just, don't you want anybody to act like that around you? Maybe it's time-"

"No." Daphne said and stood up.

"At least see a healer about your nightmares. I know you where having one just this morning and-"

"This conversation is done." Daphne started going up the stairs when Astoria grabbed on to the hem of her robe.

"Tracey wouldn't want you to live like a zombie."

Daphne swore at her sister and tugged her robe out of Astoria's hand. She moved quickly to her room and bolted her door shut. She flung her dresser open and took out the bloodstained green and silver tie. Long ago it had lost the smell of Tracy, but Daphne grabbed it and sobbed. Its fabric wrapped itself tightly around her hands, turning her fingers white.

Her chest ached and her eyes burned. Flashes of memory from seeing Tracey fall to the ground, she could almost hear the sound that her head had made as it hit the ground and bounced once. She remembered the sticky feel of Tracey's blood.

Daphne tried to remember her good memories of Tracey. The way she smiled in her mind turned into Tracey's fierce smile on her lifeless body. The memory of the warmth of Tracey's embrace turned into the memory of lying on the ground, holding Tracey's body screaming for help.

Daphne had stopped sobbing, and just lay on the floor, aching.


	2. Chapter 2

Once Daphne's breathing had calmed down, she carefully hung the tie back in the dresser, and lay down on her bed. Breathing deeply.

She heard a timid knock her door. Daphne exhaled all her emotion, and let herself go blank. She got up and unlocked the door. Astoria stood outside, makeup smudged.

"I'm sorry," Astoria said, and before Daphne could pull away she enveloped her sister in a bone crushing hug. Awkwardly, Daphne patted Astoria on the head. "It just worries me that you're up here all the time, alone and doing nothing."

Daphne could speak. There was something hard in her throat.

"Have you talked to any of your old friends? You and Blaise were close once."

Inside Daphne head she pushed Astoria away and told the interfering brat that she didn't want to see anyone, she just wanted to be alone. But the hard lump in her throat was still preventing her from saying anything without sounding foolish.

"At least please come shopping with me tomorrow? You don't have to meet Draco."

"Okay." Daphne said lightly, hoping that that would be enough for Astoria to shut up and leave her alone.

"Excellent!" Astoria said and squeezed Daphne tighter for amount then pulled away, her grin reaching all the way to her eyes.

Daphne rolled her eyes. Astoria bounced away happily and Daphne closed the door. She lay on her bed and tried to sleep again. She just felt so tired and empty.

_Using the passage that she and Tracey used to use to sneak into Honeydukes at night, Daphne_ _hauled Tracey's body away from the battle. She didn't think anyone had seen her. Exhausted she collapsed in the passage. She didn't have the strength to keep carrying Tracey._

_She could hear the sounds of the battle up stairs. _

_Wearily Daphne kept her wand pointed at the entrance, ready to curse who ever came down. She tried not be sick when she saw that Tracey's blood was still on her hands. _

_She didn't know how long she sat like that, just waiting. _

_When a pair of Gryffindor's came down, they took a surprised step back when they saw her. The wand trembled in her hand. It didn't take much for them to disarm her. She just went limp. Harry Potter had apparently come back from the dead and won. They seemed unsure of what to do with her. Daphne didn't even know what to do with herself._

Daphne woke again to Astoria shaking her awake again. Apparently it was tomorrow already.

Astoria tuttered disapprovingly when Daphne only had coffee for breakfast, "you need to eat something."

"I'm not hungry." Daphne said and slurped her coffee loudly to annoy Astoria.

"All you ate yesterday was lemon tarts. You're wasting away!"

"I'm not hungry. I'll eat something later when we are shopping, okay?"

Astoria just watched Daphne drink her coffee with a disapproving look, so Daphne slurped it loudly again and gained a small amount of satisfaction when Astoria winced as if the sound physically pained her.

Diagon Alley was still in shambles. Wizards and witches was rebuilding their shops and sweeping debris away. Still, customers went into shops that were somehow defying nature and still standing despite how many hole were in their walls.

Astoria snapped at Daphne was slumping and walking too slowly.

"How's mother?" Daphne asked, wanting talk about something other than her own faults.

"Unwell. You should really talk to her." Astoria replied as she stepped over a beam of splintering wood.

"You were always mother's favourite. I wouldn't know what to say."

"And you were Daddy's. Perhaps you would be better at talking to her about him than I would."

"I don't like talking about it." Daphne said, knowing the excuse was a poor one. Their father's imprisonment due to his involvement with the Dark Lord worried all the family, but Daphne felt guilty that she was grieving more for Tracey than her father. Technically their father wasn't dead, but they doubted he would survive his sentence in Azkaban.

"Hmm," replied Astoria and dropped the conversation topic.

"Okay, where was it you wanted to go today?" Daphne asked after an awkward moment of silence.

"Well, first to Twilfitt and Tattings – I need new dress robes. And you can't keep wearing those grey robes."

"They're comfortable!"

"And hideous. After that I want ice-cream."

Daphne gave a small smile. "You are such a kid."

South Diagon Alley had been hit hard in the Second Wizarding War - when Ollivander's Wand Shop had been broken into, and Ollivander taken by Greyback, there had been some collateral damage. With the war over for months now, shop owners were now taking the boards off the windows and rebuilding the damaged parts of their shop fronts.

Twilfitt and Tattings was close to Ollivander's and had a few smashed windows that were too far gone for a simple_ Reparo_ charm, and the rood was missing multiple tiles. It gave Daphne a moment uneasiness to see such a high class fashion store in such disrepair.

She had fond memories of coming here as a little girl, and her father spoiling her with beautiful accessories and dresses. She still sometimes wore one of the bows they had bought together, even though it was ridiculously girly. It was a pink bow with little daisies on it that changed colour randomly.

Madam Yvonne caught sight of the Greengrass sisters, smiled and wove at them to come inside. Astoria tugged on Daphne's sleeve and Daphne followed her inside the clothing boutique.

Yvonne gushed over Astoria's hair, and began helping her pick out knew dress robes. Daphne began walking around the store, inspecting it. It certainly needed tidying. And there was no sign of Yvonne usual assistants. A morbid thought popped into her head that maybe the two were dead.

It was just as likely they fled the country, seeking refuge across the English Channel. Daphne bushed her hand over a bolt of mauve fabric. It was a light fabric, and Daphne thought it could be turned into a rather fetching summer robe.

"Darling, this colour would match your eyes." Yvonne was saying, and Daphne turned to go inspect her sister. Yvoone had her standing up on the pedestal, and was showing her a length of dark green cloth.

"It's certainly a nice colour," Astoria said, considering it.

Daphne judge that suck a dark colour would make Astoria look pale to the point of sickly, no matter how much it matched her eyes. "It doesn't match your complexion," she told her sister and then went back to judging the quality of the cloth in shop.

"It does drain me a bit," Astoria admitted, looking at herself in one of the hovering mirrors. Astoria began rearranging her chestnut brown hair.

Daphne quickly grew bored. She sat down in one of the puffy pink chairs provided and fidgeted.

"Honestly, Daphne, you used to love shopping with me." Astoria admonished once she realised her sister was no longer paying attention to her.

In truth Daphne found it hard to pay attention to anything for long bouts of time anymore. Nothing really interested at all. "I'm just tired," Daphne said tersely She love her little sister to bits, but did grate on her nerves sometimes.

Astoria gave sniff of disapproval.

"I'm going outside for some air. I'll be back later." Daphne said and left the shop. She began walking down the street, not thinking particularly hard where she was going. She just need to get away from Astoria for a moment.

She paused a moment outside Eylops, it had been her a Tracey's favourite store to visit. Tracey would always like to poke her head in and play with the new kittens or give some of the young owls a treat.

Daphne smiled at the memory until her head was invaded by a different memory, and she could once again feel the stickiness of Tracey's blood on her hands.

Daphne took a breath and shook her head and kept on walking. Focusing all of her brain on putting one foot in front of the other and continuing to breathe, she found herself some unknowable time later at a dead end.

Frowning, she left the tiny side alley she found herself in and came out near a small café, a second hand book store and Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions. Out front of Madam Primpernelle's there was sign reading "Get Rid of Warts and Worse!" She still didn't feel hungry so she ignored the café.

She herself had never needed warts removed, but she had heard a rumour that Millicent frequented the shop. With nothing else to do, she entered the store out of curiosity.

She didn't know what she was expecting, but the softly lit store than smelt faintly of vanilla wasn't it. There were scented candles and soaps lining one wall. Looking closer revealed that one of the soaps boasted that it was "Pomegranate Scented: Instant Acne Removal!"

She supposed such a thing would be helpful to young witches and wizards who did not know how to brew potions for such things. Although it's rather high price said that it would require having rich parents. Rich parents who didn't believe strongly that their daughters had to make their own concoctions otherwise they'd bring shame to the Greengrass name.

On another row were vials and bottles of different potions. A small pot that smelt distinctly of wet dog was called "Sybil's Soothing Balm" the bottom of the pot had instructions as where to put this balm to solve a most embarrassing and _private_ skin inflammation. Daphne quickly put it down.

"Can I help you?" Said a voice that sounded like it was coming through a paper bag filled with sand.

"Oh! Uhm I was just looking." Daphne said hurriedly turning to face the dry voice.

A woman who could be anywhere from in her 70's to her 150's was standing at the counter with a rather gummy smile. "My name is Mrs P." She rasped. "I know just what you need."

"Really, I don't need anything removed."

Mrs P let out a grating laugh, and started rummaging through draws. She pulled out a small mirror and a brown pot. "It's my own make," she said proudly, "come here girl."

All her better senses told her to run. But her curiosity won, as it so often did.

"Put it under your eyes." Mrs P instructed. And Daphne gingerly put two fingers in the pot. The stuff inside was weirdly warm, and gooey. She put the mixture under her eyes, the fumes stinging them slightly. She looked in the mirror and watched as the orange goo faded as did the bags under her eyes as the redness in her eyes from crying so often.

He eye's looked perhaps a bit dull, but not marred by the heavy blue-purple bags under them or the redness in them.

Daphne had never heard of a potion that could do such a thing before. "That's really cool," she told Mrs P seriously.

Mrs P gave a chuckle.

"How much for the pot?" Daphne asked, and she and Mrs P began haggling over price. When both of them finally agreed, Mr's P wrapped up the pot and gave it to Daphne.

"I will see you again later," She said, as if she definitely knew that Daphne would come back here. Daphne checked her pocket watch, and realised that she'd left Astoria alone in a clothing stop for nearly an hour.

She hurried left the weird little shop and rushed to Twilfitt and Tattings. Astoria was still there, and had apparently bought enough clothes to dress her entire year. Astoria was still chatting away to Yvonne, but she smiled brightly when Daphne entered. Daphne smiled back.


	3. Chapter 3

Carrying several bags of Astoria's new clothes, Daphne and her sister went in search of ice-cream. They used to just go to Florean Fortescue's, however; Florean had died at the hands Death Eaters.

They eventually found a small place, run by buxom and loud woman. The ice-cream was good, but not nearly as wonderful as Florean. Daphne felt a familiar wave of grief wash over her, Florean had always been kind.

"Daphne?"

"Oh, sorry Astoria, my mind was elsewhere, what did you say?"

"Oh never mind." Astoria sighed. Daphne sensed that her sister was growing fed up with Daphne's near constant moping. The war had seemed to have left Astoria intact. All of her friends were still alive. Admittedly, their father was currently in Azkaban, but he was still alive.

"So, how's Draco?" Daphne asked.

Astoria went off on a happy burble about her suitor. Daphne was used to girls burbling at her about Draco. About how handsome and misunderstood he was. Mostly, Daphne thought he was a stuck up Daddy's boy. She had grown to loath to hear about Draco's hair, which Pansy used to chatter about ceaselessly back when they lived in the same dorm.

But all that listening to Pansy had let her grow very good at making the appropriate sounds whenever boys where discussed.

"He's just such a gentleman to me!" Astoria said with a happy sigh. And then grew contemplative. "Although, there is this one thing…"

"Hmm?"

"Well. He mentions Pansy a lot. Like yesterday when we went out to lunch he mentioned that Pansy would never do that with him."

"Go out to lunch?"

"Publically hold hands."

"Oh Astoria, you scarlet woman you, clearly he was making a comment about how loose you are." Daphne said with a roll of her eyes.

"Really?" Astoria asked worriedly.

"No, you stupid snot-face. I'm pretty sure that was him trying to say you are better than Pansy. There are defiantly no residual feelings there."

"You sure?" Astoria asked, looking down at her hands.

"Absolutely. They had a horribly messy break up. And he ended it with her, although she was also pretty disgusted with him. She used to complain to us about how distant he was. I mean, in retrospect he was obviously busy with. Well. You know, but he eventually just told her to keep her pug-like face out of his business."

"Oh." Astoria said softly. "Good."

"You didn't know about that?"

"Well I just knew that they'd been together for _years_ and something happened."

"Hmm."

"Draco has a lot of pain, I don't like pushing him." Astoria snapped at what she guessed was a judgemental tone.

"You mean you don't want him to think you're an annoying kid." Daphne guessed. She and Draco had finished Hogwarts, but Astoria was younger and would have to go back in September.

"Oh, shut-up."

Daphne laughed. Astoria threw a scrunched up serviette at her.

As soon as Daphne got home she went upstairs and flopped down on her bed. She leaned over slightly to put her wand on the nightstand, and then remembered the pot of eye goo. She pulled it out of her pocket and un-shrunk it.

She dropped it on to her bedside shelf. Daphne began chastising herself for engaging in that small bit of vanity. Tracey had beautiful eyes, and never needed goo to clean them up.

Daphne tried to shake herself away from that train of thought. It was if she couldn't go a breath without thinking of Tracey and aching for her; Tracey, whose eyes sparkled. Tracey whose eyes she first noticed when she'd been swearing about Umbridge in their common room.

Tracey had been disgusted when Umbridge didn't teach them any practical defence magic. She loudly complained in the common room about how much she hated the pink toad. Daphne remembered laughing perhaps too load at that comment, and drawing a glance from Tracey and a quick smile.

And when the Inquisitional Squad was being formed, these comments were remembered and she was excluded. Daphne declined to join as well. Whilst they had shared a dormitory for years, Daphne hadn't known Tracey particularly well. Daphne had been part of Pansy "gang", and Tracey spent the majority of her time with her best friend Blaise.

Daphne's lack of interest in being one of Umbridge's toadies led to Tracey and Blaise accepting her into their friendship group. Daphne was frankly sick of listening all of Pansy's gossip and fawning over Draco, and welcomed the change of companions.

And when Blaise abandoned them to go hang around Draco, it was just Tracey and Daphne. Those years of being Tracey and Daphne were the happiest years of Daphne's life.

But Tracey was dead and would hate Daphne if she could see how useless she was right now.

Daphne heaved herself off her soft bed with a heavy sigh. She could not stand to think of how Tracey would react to how wretched Daphne had become. She decided she needed a distraction from her thoughts, and went in search of her little sister.

Astoria was folding her new clothes up and placing them in her cupboard.

"Hey, why don't you get Mimsy to do that?" Daphne asked, letting herself into Astoria's luxurious and obscenely purple room.

"Hmm? Oh, Daphne." Astoria said, not looking up quickly then returning to her work. "I like this part. Organising my new things, trying them on again in combination with other old things I have, it sort reaffirms they're mine."

"Huh. You're so weird."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm bored." Dpahne complained.

"Well, luckily for you we're seeing mother tonight for dinner."

"I thought I told you early today that I didn't want to talk to her about Father."

"Well talk about something else. Her nurse floo-called this afternoon, just after we got back. She says mother has been asking after us. We can't just abandon her." Astoria explained in her stern but calm voice.

"Is she getting worse?" Daphne asked softly, she worried for her mother's condition, but not as much as she worried for Father's and only a fraction of how much she grieved Tracey. Mother was safe, and whilst her mind was broken, she wasn't in mortal peril.

"She's not getting better."

Dpahne sat in silence for a moment, watching Astoria pack up her new clothes, and pretended not to notice that Astoria's voiced sounded like she was close to tears.

"Well, okay, but if that creepy nurse guy that spits while he talks is there, I will not be happy."

Astoria gave a strangled little laugh. "He's nice once you get to know him."

"I do not want to know anybody who covers me in saliva when they talk." Daphne said and crossed her arms. She was pleased when Astoria gave a healthier sounding laugh. Her sister may be a snot-faced annoying brat, but Daphne could not stand to hear her sad.


	4. Chapter 4

Daphne hated the smell of St. Mungos. It smelt like cleaning potions and spells trying to cover the smell of disease and death. He mother sat in her private room, constantly fidgeting. She was currently classed as a potential harm to herself, but not to others.

Daphne had a fleeting moment of clarity, knowing her mother was in the exact same situation as herself. She too had lost her love to the second wizarding war.

However, their mother had been unstable before the war as well. It was just that father's imprisonment and imminent death tipped her over the edge.

Her mother looked gaunter than usual. Her face was cover in healing scratches, and her hands were bound up in cloth to stop her from trying to scratching herself again. Her mother had refused to let the healers remove the scars on her arms, legs and body. Her mother seemed unwilling to let anyone tend to attend to the ugly reminders of what she had done to herself.

Daphne hated coming here. She hated it when the healers told her that if she watched her mother very closely, they would let her mother have her wand back for 15 minutes. Astoria had cried along with her mother when the healers first had to confiscate their mother's wand for her own safety.

Her mother had been strong before. Stern. She had raised Astoria and Daphne with iron resolve, while other pureblood mothers let nannies or even house elves tend to their children.

Lady Greengrass now had to have her hands bound so she wouldn't try to scratch out her eyes.

Astoria started talking softly to their mother, as if she was a wild animal that would startle easily. Daphne swallowed her feelings, and joined her sister.

Upon getting closer, she could hear what her sister was saying.

"No, mummy, the healers haven't put anything in your food." Astoria said in her calm soft voice.

"Not all of them, dear. I'm talking about the mudblood." Mother said.

Daphne winced. One of the healers had been trying to Establish-A-Connection with their mother, and had talked about their own parents, revealing that they were muggleborn. Daphne's mother had focussed all her paranoia on that one healer ever since.

"I bought a nice new dress robe today, mummy. Yvonne asked after you, you know, the nice shopkeeper from Twilfitt and Tattings?" Astoria said in an attempt to get their mother off a rather awkward subject.

Daphne had been proud of the way Astoria had quickly realised that their family, and indeed most of pureblood society, were no longer prominent and respected members of the wizarding community.

Harry Potter had killed the Dark Lord, and his allies had jailed their father and anyone else with a dark mark. Astoria's suitor had only been saved because Narcissa Malfoy had the gall to lie to Voldemort's face about Harry Potter dying. This one act during the Battle of Hogwarts had saved the Malfoys from serving time in Azkaban.

However, Daphne's mother didn't understand how far they had fallen. Anyone who was related to a Death Eater was treated with suspicion. And any who used muggle degrading slurs were treated with contempt.

Daphne hoped her mother hadn't been too vocal of her suspicion of the mudb- that is, the muggleborn healer.

"Yvonne is hiding something you know, she always smiles too much." Mother said in hushed and suspicious tone.

Mother had always been prone to paranoia. But this was far worse than Daphne had ever seen her. The loss of Father had destroyed whatever had been keeping her mostly intact.

Just like losing Tracey had made Daphne feel so useless to the world.

"Mother, I will make sure Yvonne doesn't do anything to Astoria." Daphne told the feeble looking woman, who seemed mollified by this statement.

"Yes, look out for each other," Mother said. Her cloth wrapped hands twitched periodically.

Astoria gave a small smile. "We always do."

"Do you want me to bring you your wand for a few moments, Mother?" Daphne asked.

"No, no no. I think that mudblood stole mine, and replaced it with some lesser wand. They're greedy for magic, mudbloods are you know." Said mother, her voice rising, she seemed on the verge of one of her hysterical fits.

Astoria's face grew pained. "How about I bring Draco to meet you next time, mummy?" She said, desperately trying to distract their mother.

"It wouldn't do for a young gentleman to see me, Astoria. You know better than that. That mudblood makes me wear this foolish gown, it's degrading!" Mother ranted, gesturing to her hospital gown. "This is what happens when you let them have any kind of job. They misuse it so they can try and bring down pureblood to their shameful level. I don't know why you ingrates let them keep me hostage here!"

Daphne was near panicking, "Mother, please-"

"-after all I've done for you! To let mudbloods manhandle me, it's disgraceful-"

"Mummy, calm down." Astoria tried to cut in.

"Clam down? Calm down?! How can I be calm when my own flesh and blood have nothing but apathy for their parents situation! You poor father! Punished for doing what's right. Me! Assaulted by mudbloods!"

A healer came into the Greengrass private room, to see what the commotion was all about. She was a matronly woman, and spoke with a rather controlling voice, "Mrs Greengrass, are you quite all right?"

"Sorry, Mother seems to be-" Daphne tried to explain.

"You got her all worked up, didn't you? Right, Mrs Greengrass, time for your potion." The healer's reprimanding tone made Daphne feel like she was six years old and had been caught putting pond scum in her sister's bed.

The healer fed Daphne's mother a calming draught, and she seemed to quieten near instantly.

"Does this happen often?" Daphne asked Astoria, who had been oddly quiet.

"More than I'd like," Astoria said curtly. Daphne exhaled. Astoria glanced up at her, and spoke with a softer tone, "she's not that bad, she just gets excited easily. Sometimes I can distract her, but not always..."

"Would seeing father help her, do you think?'

"Mother is far too emotional, being near dementors would only break her worse, you know that." Astoria said, and smoothed the hair off their mothers too tranquil face.

"I know. I'm just working through ideas of how to help."

"I don't think you can, Daphne. This is our reality. Just try and live in it from now on, and spend less time in your room - that would help me at least." Astoria said, continuing to brush their mothers hair, deliberately not making eye contact with Daphne.

Daphne was taken back by the frankness of Astoria's words. She wanted to convey that she wasn't exactly choosing to grieve Tracey so, and felt like any control she had over her life had been taken away from her.

Even the thought of Tracey's name just now made her feel as if her legs were about to give out, and a pain deep in her chest tighten.

"I'm sorry, that was too harsh," Astoria said, breaking Daphne's train of thought.

"No, it's fine. Just forget it."

The two sisters sat in uneasy silence for the duration of their visits.

**o0O0o**

Daphne ate dinner alone in her room, need some space from her sister. Daphne's mind spun. Mother's mental health was failing without Father there to calm her moods. Father was having his life's essence slowly destroyed by dementors. A distressingly large amount of people died after only a few years.

Daphne stared at the Slytherin tie she kept hidden in her closet. She placed it around her neck, imagining the were Tracey's hands instead, pulling her down for a kiss.

Astoria would be going back to Hogwarts soon, leaving Daphne alone to deal with these problems.

There was a timid knock on her door.

"Yes?" She called out, hastily stuffing the bloodied Slytherin tie in her pocket. The timid Greengrass family house-elf, Mimsy, entered her room.

"Excuse me miss, as the currently defacto head of house there is paperwork waiting for you in the office, if you is not minding, sorry to disturb!" The house-elf said hurriedly. "It came from the Ministry today, and I is needing, sorry miss, requesting you to look over it, am much sorry miss!"

Daphne wanted to tell Mimsy where she could stick the paperwork, but after remembering an unfortunate incident of saying such a thing to a house-elf regarding her breakfast, she thought better of it.

"Very well," she said with a sigh. "Pour me a hot bath to return to once I'm finished with the paperwork."

The house-elf burbled off a happy "straight away, miss." And then disappeared with a pop.

Daphne entered her father's old office with trepidation. It had always been his sanctuary, and still smelled of him A blend of stale coffee, cigar smoke and aftershave.

The smell of it made Daphne's head spin for a moment with memories of sitting in here, on father's leg as he read to her.

She remembered that he had secret draw filled with sweets, that he used to feed to her and her sister if they did something good or just made him smile. He would tell them to keep it a secret - mother had very strict rules on sweets.

Daphne opened the draw, and found there were still empty chocolate frog wrappers, Bertie Botts Beans, and other such sweets. Daphne's eye's burned with the familiar feeling of tears, and she brushed angrily at them.

Her preoccupation with Tracey had allowed her to not to feel the pain of her father's absence, but this room made her feel like she was drowning in the memory of him.

In a neat pile on his desk were the papers she was to look over. Mimsy had apparently been dealing with it until now. A house-elf had been trying to deal with all the Greengrass business.

Daphne hit her head with her palm. She had never wondered who had been dealing with it. Obviously mother and father couldn't, Astoria was technically still a child.

This was her job. All those times she had told the house-elf not to disturb her, it had thought she meant not to bring this to her attention.

Daphne's could see a dent in the wall where Mimsy had obviously been punishing herself for touching their affairs, but had been unable to tell her due to Daphne continuously telling it not to disturb herself.

"I am so stupid." Daphne said out load, and headdesked.

There was a neat pile of bills that hadn't been paid. House-elves weren't allowed to deal with that kind of money, at least theirs had been specifically told not to.

The first on the pile was their mother's St Mungo's bill. Next was their usual charity donations. Astoria's school fees...

And a notice from the Ministry saying they had to pay compensation for their father's Death Eater activities otherwise his sentence would be extended.

"Ah. Shit." Daphne said. "Mimsy?" She called and the house elf popped into the room.

"Yes miss?"

"It seems we have some bills to pay." Daphne said.

Daphne became uncomfortably aware that without mother and father's wages, they were now simply draining their account without putting anything in.


End file.
